The most prevalent form of diabetes is Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 90-95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes was previously known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). Type 2 diabetes was also previously known as adult-onset diabetes. However, this form of diabetes is becoming increasingly prevalent in the growing population of overweight and clinically obese children and adults. Type 2 diabetes typically begins with insulin resistance, a disorder in which the body's cells do not respond to insulin properly, followed by a gradual loss on part of the pancreas to produce and secrete insulin in at least some patients. Type 2 diabetes is associated with a variety of factors including older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, history of gestational diabetes, impaired glucose metabolism, dietary intake of carbohydrates and glucose, low physical inactivity, and various races or ethnicities. Further conditions considered consequences of diabetes itself include hypertension and cardiovascular disease, especially atherosclerosis and vascular clotting and inflammation that may lead to ischemia of the heart tissues.
According to the American Diabetes Association, 20.6% of adults over the age of 60 have diabetes and 34.8% of all adults have either diabetes or pre-diabetes. A major goal of therapeutic treatment of diabetic patients is to delay or prevent the complications associated with chronic hyperglycemia. Cardiovascular complications are the most frequent cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients. These complications include microangiopathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy, and macroangiopathy, which is an accelerated form of atherosclerosis. Most patients with Type 2 diabetes die from cardiovascular disease, and it has only recently been demonstrated that some diabetes medicaments accelerate the development of cardiovascular disease in Type 2 diabetics, while others may prevent or slow down the rate of injury.
Another condition that is widely prevalent and which has multiple relationships and causal connections with cardiovascular disease is Metabolic Syndrome (MS). MS has many different manifestations such as Type 2 Diabetes, hyperlipidemia, obesity and Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but heretofore there has been no means of tracking progression of MS in patient populations that may have any or all of these conditions to varying degrees. Thus, there is an ongoing need for improved cardiovascular risk scoring processes for metabolic syndrome manifestation diseases, as well as for Type 2 diabetes. The present invention meets these and other needs.